George Osbourne's remarks that a Conservative government would look to curb union power and change employment laws has provoked a storm of criticism.
Osbourne said the public sector unions had grown too powerful and led to widespread industrial unrest across public services.
Union leaders have lined up to criticise the Tory shadow chancellor following his comments after the British Chambers of Commerce annual conference in Liverpool. TUC chief Brendan Barber called it "a serious gaffe" and said Osbourne was "seriously out of touch".
Unite general secretary Tony Woodley said the comments showed the Tories were still intent on union bashing, with Unison leader Dave Prentis said the Conservatives had shown "their true colours".
The fact of the matter is that unions are never going to be in favour of a Conservative government and its traditional big business and privatisation agenda. So in effect, the Tories haven't lost any support they had in the first place.
But I wonder if this gives us a glimpse of what the business agenda might be like under a Tory government?
We know the party is trying to reclaim the centre ground from Labour and focus on equality and family-friendly legislation, but on other areas its policies remain unclear.
With potentially two years to until the next general election, a lack of clarity probably doesn't matter too much now. But the closer we get to 2010 the more employers will want to know what voting Conservative will mean for them.
Curbing union power might be a good headline grabbing policy, but the devil will be in the detail for many.
Comments (1)
The Union Barons need to get a grip on themselves. If we ran the country the way they would like to we would be bankrupt. In all of the recent Union mergers those at the top have given themselves better conditions than the membership they purport to represent.
Posted by George Smith | May 1, 2008 1:49 PM
Posted on May 1, 2008 13:49